agent orange

[666]

what was agent orange, i heard it is something to do with the Vietnam War ?

[KebabMeister]

Orange is just another name the US called the agents they used; blue, white, purple, orange etc.

It was used between 1965 and 1970 and the chemical properties consist of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid and 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid/Acetic acid, (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy).

It's basically a highly toxic weed killer and was used in Vietnam to destroy the vegetation to aid American combat.  Unfortunately there were side effects to the chemical and was discontinued.

[666]

bit of a stupid question but what sort of weed we talking about ? marijuana or just wild unwanted plants ?

[KebabMeister]

It would kill all vegetation.  The US wanted to clear the jungles to help their soldiers and to prevent the Vietcong from hiding there.

[Peter Pedant]

Its pretty vile stuff. It was also used (recycled) as a phrase in the nineties to describe orange juices and orange squashes which dont contain much orange.

It is  mutagenic and teratogenic, and the Americans now - for free - correct all the cleft lips and palates that occur in (united) Vietnam in the children. The big question is whether agent orange mutated the viet germ line. That is whether agent orange caused the initial cleft which are now hereditary in the affected families.

too early to tell.

[thekraut]

one interesting point is that those names - agent orange, blue, white and whatnot are actually colour codes for the barrels they were stored and transported in. at the time that stuff was so secret that they couldn't just print the name on the barrels. instead they used the colours.